1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a substrate processing apparatus and substrate processing method, comprising a furnace constituting a quartz gas supply portion, which is connected to a reaction tube, and more particularly to an apparatus and method for eliminating the transmission to the reaction tube by way of the gas supply portion of a shock impacting on the furnace.
2. Description of the Related Art
For some time now, in accordance with the relationship between temperature and a process gas in a diffusion furnace, quartz has been utilized in a gas supply pipe leading to a reaction tube. As shown in FIG. 9, a reaction tube-side gas supply pipe 42 is integrally mounted to a quartz reaction tube 41. A quartz source-side gas supply pipe 43, which is linked to a reactant gas source, is connected to this reaction tube-side gas supply pipe 42 by a pipe clamp 44 to secure the respective flanges.
However, in general, quartz is a brittle material, and is disadvantageous in that it is easily damaged when impacted by a shock, such as that of an earthquake. The constitution of a diffusion furnace reaction chamber is such that the quartz reaction tube is manufactured in a practically integrated fashion, so that when a shock impacts this reaction tube, it is damaged easily, resulting in considerable losses when the reaction tube must be remanufactured. More specifically, as shown in FIG. 10, gas supply pipe 43 is affixed to the reaction tube 41 by being securely connected to gas supply pipe 42 via a pipe clamp 44. Thus, when an earthquake occurs, the shock directly impacts the reaction tube 41 via the gas supply pipes 42, 43, causing damage to the weld portion 45 of the base of gas supply pipe 42, which is the most brittle. For this reason, improvement of the gas supply portion is desirable in a furnace in which the reaction tube and gas pipes are constituted of quartz.